


Sweet Dreams, Waking Nightmares

by SteveGarbage



Series: FEH Resplendent Hero shorts [20]
Category: Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Dreams and Nightmares, Gen, Ljósálfheimr., Resplendent Hero
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:40:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27883903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SteveGarbage/pseuds/SteveGarbage
Summary: A short story celebrating Lucina's Resplendent Hero garb of Ljósálfheimr.
Series: FEH Resplendent Hero shorts [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1722151
Kudos: 13





	Sweet Dreams, Waking Nightmares

She burst through the canopy of leaves, a spray of flowers surrounding her as the branches shook as she went past.

Lucina dipped down under the branches, weaving between the trees, the wind rushing through her hair as she zagged between the trunks at high speed.

She laughed aloud as she zipped over the colorful landscape of Ljósálfheimr, trees and flower and vibrant plants of all shapes and sizes, warm fragrant air and, of course, sunlight. She dipped down under some branches, skimmed her fingers across the carpet of moss and leaves and grass and flowers on the forest floor, then bent upward and shot through the trees again as she exploded back into the sky.

The long, yellow-orange arms of the sun greeted her, embracing her in light and warmth as her wings beat the air, sending her higher and higher into the sky until she could feel the cool spray of clouds passing over her as she swam through puffy white balls of cotton. She closed her eyes, soaking in the sunbeams as she took a deep breath and smiled before leaning backward, bending her wings to her back and starting another high-speed dive toward the ground.

She could hear the excited laughter of the other Ljósálfar as they bobbed and weaved through the air, watching her aerobatic display as she rose and dove and spun and twisted and rolled through the sky.

This place was so alive, so wonderful, so carefree and beautiful. It was Lucina's favorite place in all of creation.

_"Lucina..."_

She felt the slight touch on her shoulder and her eyes burst open, her left hand clenching around the scabbard of her sword and right hand starting to pull the blade as she jerked upright.

"Easy!"

Lucina blinked, focusing her eyes in the dark, seeing her cousin with his hand out in front of her to stop her from leaping up.

She felt the hardness of the ground against her hip, barely cushioned by the thin and worn-out bedroll beneath her. Everything was dark except for the faintest flicker of orange from a tiny and dying fire a few feet away. The air was cold. She slowly pushed Falchion back into its case as she lowered the sword back down to the ground and took her first breath since jumping awake.

"Owain," she sighed as she blinked, closed her eyes for a second, took a second breath and swallowed down the lump of fear that was in her throat every time she woke from sleep. "Are we safe?"

Her blonde-haired cousin rocked backward, falling from his crouch onto his butt as he sat, letting his forearms droop over his knees. "For now."

Lucina looked him over. "You're hurt," she said, noticing a new red line across the side of his face that hadn't been there that morning.

"It's nothing," he said, running his thumb over it, wiping the thin line of blood that had pooled out of the cut. "Just a scratch."

"From when?" she asked, narrowing her eyes sternly at him. Owain was too reckless. She had told him a thousand times.

"A little bit ago," he said, "which is why I said 'for now' and woke you up."

"We better move," they said in unison.

Lucina sighed. How late was it? How much sleep had she gotten? The moon was already at its height when the others had finally forced her to lay down and try to sleep. She found she had been out nearly as fast as her head touched the hard, cold ground.

She had woken to the world of color and warmth, with butterfly wings upon her back. It was her favorite dream to dream. But in the end, it was only a dream.

The real world was dark, cold and dangerous.

They were being actively hunted day after day. They persisted only by the ability to run, hide and, when they had no other option, fight. What remained of Ylisstol was ruins and wreckage, strewn with burnt buildings, scorched earth and bodies upon bodies upon bodies.

Now, it seemed, Grima was consumed with nothing else but his desire to hunt down the last dozen left who were still willing to openly oppose him.

"Wake the others up and let's get moving, there's no time--"

She stopped short at the sounds of shouting and metal in the distance.

The roar of a wyvern pierced the sky as she saw dark wings take to the sky, its rider swooping over their hidden camp before the beast dove down back toward the ground, its rider great axe glinting in the gleam.

"They found us!" Severa shouted as she burst in at full sprint, her blade already bare and stained.

"Gather everyone together and we can--" Lucina started.

"There's no time!" Severa barked, cutting her off. "They're on top of us! We have to go, _now!_ "

"Go where?" Owain asked.

"Anywhere but here!" Severa shouted back at him as she was already running back out to the fight.

Lucina reached down and grabbed Falchion again, but her arm jerked as the blade was pinned to the ground with Owain's hand over the scabbard.

"No," her cousin said, his fiery eyes looking at her. "We'll hold them off. You go."

"Owain," Lucina said as she held her breath, "no."

"Yes," her cousin disagreed, smiling a wide smile that made him look like the spitting image of his mother. "If worse comes to worst, you have to make it back. We'll hold these Risen off and we'll meet you there. Trust me."

Lucina tugged at her sword, but Owain kept it pinned to the ground and she was pretty sure he wasn't going to let off until she agreed with him. He was stubborn. And reckless.

"OK," she surrendered. "Be careful. I want you all there with me."

"Don't worry," Owain said as he lifted her hand off her sword case, raising it in front of his face until his eyes could only be seen from between his fingers and smiled from behind it. "My hand hungers."

Owain whirled away to join the fray.

Lucina scurried up from her bedroll, looking at the threadbare pad and hearing the sounds of battle growing lower and closer. There was no time. She turned on her heel and sprinted in the opposite direction toward the peaks of the mountains in the distance, leaving everything else behind.

In a few days time, she hoped that they would all safely reach Mount Prism and be able to make the jump to the past, where their only hope remained. The present was doomed. Grima had won. He could not be beaten, regardless of how much they had tried to restore their world

The only place where peace and happiness still existed now was in her dreams.

But in the past, maybe, just maybe she would be able to change her fate.


End file.
